1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive navigation apparatus, and more specifically, to an automotive navigation apparatus which displays a map adjacent to the current position of a vehicle and provides a driver with a route from the current position to a destination, and a recording medium storing a program therefor.
2. Description of the Background Art
A conventional automotive navigation apparatus generally two-dimensionally displays a map on a screen. In the conventional automotive navigation apparatus which displays the map on the screen, however, there is a disadvantage in that the driver can acquire only two-dimensional information and cannot grasp three-dimensional information such as difference of altitude of a road caused by terrain roughness. Furthermore, there is a limit to the size of a monitor loaded in a vehicle and disadvantageously, only a limited range of the map adjacent to the current position can be displayed.
Therefore, various navigation apparatus are suggested which can three-dimensionally display a map. For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 3-26917 discloses that the forward road from the current position of a mobile unit on a road map is displayed by scenography. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 5-203457 discloses that scenery from an arbitrary position on a map is displayed as a three-dimensional image by using shape data and altitude data of mountains and buildings linked to the map.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 3-26917, however, in the automotive navigation apparatus which displays a map using scenography, while the road map displayed on a screen and the real road shape can advantageously easily correspond each other, there is the disadvantage as in the conventional automotive navigation apparatus for two-dimensional display.
As in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 5-203457, in the automotive navigation apparatus which three-dimensionally displays a map by accumulating contour lines in the altitude direction using the shape data and altitude data of mountains and buildings, a data structure is complicated and massive amounts of data are required for smooth display of a terrain.
Furthermore, in the conventional automotive navigation apparatus, since character information is displayed in a level manner on a map where a road network is complicated, visual recognition is disadvantageously impaired.
Furthermore, the conventional automotive navigation apparatuses having a function for acquiring a route in an arbitrary section, a method for setting a destination and a method for selecting a road are disadvantageously complicated.